Social media marketing has seen a spike in popularity over the years. With most smartphones now having social media capabilities, it has become easier for both individual and business marketers to leverage social media for marketing their business. As of January 2023, the number of social media users worldwide grew by 3% YoY or 137 million plus users. This presents a wide range of marketing opportunities for you.
With this in mind, it is very clear how important social media is for your business. If you do not have a social media presence, chances are you could be losing out on potential customers. However, social media marketing does not mean you will promote your business on every platform you find online. With so many social media platforms out there, how do you know which one is right for you? So read on and be guided on how to identify the right social media marketing channel for your business.
How To Choose The Right Social Media Platform
- Determine Your Target Audience
- Identify Your Goals
- Research The Competition
- Understand Each Platform And Their Uses
- Consider Your Available Resources
- Go Where Your Customers Are
- Decide On The Type of Content
- Align Them With Your Social Goals
Choosing The Right Social Media Platform
Social media marketing is a must nowadays. In today’s digital age, having a social media presence can go a long way in driving traffic to your website. But the question that comes to mind is “Which is the right social media platform for me?” If you find yourself asking the same question, then this article is for you.
1. Determine Your Target Audience
Before choosing a social media platform, you should first identify your target audience. It would not make sense to create a Facebook channel if your target customer is not active on the channel. Naturally, you want to be present on Facebook, which has the biggest number of users but if your target customers are using other social media platforms, that’s where you should make your presence felt. The key is to be as specific as possible for easier decision making.
Different customers hang out on different channels. For example, younger audiences prefer Instagram or Tiktok while older ones have accounts on Facebook or LinkedIn. Consider other factors as well in order to choose the right social media platform to hang out on.
You can learn about your target audience and understand them more effectively. You can do this through customer feedback, social media, social listening, and on-site statistics. What content does your audience read? In which demographics are they on? This will help you narrow down your choices of social media platform.
2. Identify Your Goals
Once you have identified your target audience, the next step is to determine your goal. While the most common goal is to drive traffic and sales conversion, social media marketing can help you achieve other goals, such as:
- Brand Awareness. Social media allows your brand to stay current in your customer’s feeds. It can help increase brand visibility by feeding customers with helpful information about your products or services. It can make them accessible to your potential customers.
- Sharing Updates. Social media channels help keep you updated with the latest happenings in your brand. Whether it’s a milestone, achievement, or product launch, you can always keep customers in the loop.
- Connecting with Customers. Having a social media account can be your means of communicating with customers directly. You can set up a dialogue with them on their preferred channel. You can use these channels to get honest feedback and in building a community.
- Boosting SEO. Although social media has an indirect impact on SEO, it can still help boost your SEO. Search engines use social media platforms to determine your E.A.T (expertise, authority, and trust). Having a strong E.A.T. can help you achieve higher ranking in search results.
- Increasing Web Traffic. Social media marketing can help you increase website traffic. By linking relevant links to your web post, customers will be able to discover and access your website from your social media channels.
- Growing Email List. Social media is also effective for growing other marketing channels such as your email list. You can send emails to your customers so they can go further down your sales funnel.
- Leverage Social Proof. You can use your social media channel to ask for social proof from customers. 55% of customers have left praise for businesses through social media.
3. Research Competition
One of the first steps you can take in choosing a social media platform is to do a competitive analysis. Check out the platform they are using, what is effective and ineffective, and how they engage with customers. You should do this not because they are your competitors but also trying to see what others in your space are doing. This will help you make an informed decision about which social media platform to use.
With a competitor analysis, you gather information on which social media platforms your competitors are focusing on. You can easily find this information on their websites as most businesses post links to their social media accounts there. Competition research offers a wide range of benefits, such as:
- Identifying the most effective platform
- Determine content strategies
- Determine your position in the market
- Identify far-reaching content and post topics
- Identify product ideas
Doing a competitor analysis will help you find opportunities for growth, innovation, and enhancements. When done right, you can use the information you have gathered to capitalize on the weaknesses of the competition. In addition, you can implement better social media marketing strategies.
4. Understand Each Platform And Their Uses
Each social media platform has different uses so you need to learn about each channel so you can make an informed decision. When it comes to social media marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is Facebook or LinkedIn. However, there are new platforms that pop up on a regular basis.
It used to be that most of these platforms were used for one function which is social networking or image sharing. Over the years, as technology evolved, most of these platforms have started to integrate live streaming, augmented reality, e-commerce, and others into the functions. This is the reason why you should fully understand and know the uses of each platform to know which one will serve your business needs.
Although social media platforms share some functionalities, they also have their unique features. Before creating an account and posting content, it is important that you understand what each customer expects from the platform. Just because your competition next door is reaping success on Facebook does not mean you will succeed there too. Get to know its features, pros and cons, and understand how you can leverage them to your advantage.
5. Consider Your Available Resources
Social media marketing requires your time and commitment. For this reason, you need to take a look at the resources available to you. For example, if you only have one person who will work part-time for social media marketing, consider limiting your platforms to just one or two. On the other hand, if you have a full-time staff for social media marketing, you can have several channels.
Another important consideration is the type of content you will be creating. Visual content for posting on platforms like Instagram may require more time as opposed to textual content such as those posted on Twitter. Aside from that, you should also consider the frequency of posting on each platform to reach your target engagement level. Figuring all these out will help you decide on the platform that is best for you.
In short, you will need to be realistic with your available resources. As much as you want to use as many channels as possible, you can be limited by the number of resources available to you. Do you have a dedicated staff who can work on social media marketing? If you don’t, then choose a platform that only has lower maintenance or limit the number of platforms. `
6. Go Where Your Customers Are
Social media marketing is less about your business but more about connecting with customers. It is not just focused on Facebook because not everyone is on the platform. Yes, it could give you an online presence but those on the channel may not be exactly your ideal customers. You need to be where your customers are.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in social media marketing is to post content on every available platform. You could set up an Instagram account but will your customers see you there? Review your company goals to identify who your target audience is. When choosing a social media platform, always consider the demographics of your target audience. That is where you will make an account so you can reach out to them there.
Thus, you need to be active where your customers hang out. It does not matter if you are only visible in one or two channels as long as you are able to connect with your ideal customers. Once you have identified the channel where your customers are active, make sure to maximize it well. Use the features of the platform to reach out to your customers and stay relevant on that channel.
7. Decide On The Type of Content
Your choice of social media platform will also depend on the type of content you want to publish. Each platform has a particular type of content that it can showcase best. Be sure to tailor your content across the different platforms. Consider the type of content they will be looking for when they are on the social media platform. Put some variety on the content you will be posting such as blog posts, infographics, news, photos, and videos.
With social media platforms, you can post either videos, images, text, stories, or live streaming. Short-form videos can capture the attention of 60% of consumers. They are bite-sized and are 2.5 times more engaging than longer videos. Also, consider posting content that represents your brand values. Customers care more than ever about what the brands they patronize stand for. They want to be aware of the causes that the brands they buy from support.
So what platforms are the best for content that you will share? Facebook is your best option if you want to engage with a broad audience. Instagram is the best option for posting visual content. It always boils down to your target audience when publishing content and choosing social media content.
8. Align Them With Your Social Goals
Whatever your goals are, make sure that your social media marketing strategy is aligned with your goals. While your primary goal is to drive sales, there are other creative goals that you can have. For instance, you can use social media for brand recognition or to build friendly relationships with potential customers. In addition, you can also incorporate social media in your customer support strategy.
Before utilizing social media marketing, you should first have an idea of what you want to achieve online. Is it to boost sales, generate leads, grow your email list, increase brand awareness, and others? When choosing a social media platform, you want to make sure that it matches your online goals. There will surely be a social media platform that will address your business goals.
If your goal is to showcase your products visually, the best option is Instagram or Pinterest. For building authority and sharing valuable information, LinkedIn or Twitter is the best choice. You do not have to have a presence on every platform but should be active on your chosen ones. Do not assume that using multiple platforms can result in higher conversion rates. Choose the ones that match the goal/s you want to achieve.
Social media offers businesses a powerful platform for achieving their marketing goals. However, not all social media platforms are right for your business. Choose the right one to reap numerous benefits associated with social media.
Why Should You Consider Social Media Marketing with airisX?
Use our social media managers to create a seamless channel for customers to show their support and share the way they use your products. Our staff is very well versed in all the platforms you use to connect with your audience, whether that is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, WeChat, etc., actively responding to messages, posts, and inquiries from your end users. We also further engage your followers by creating, curating, and posting content related to your business. Contact us at contact@airisx.com and find the right social media marketing solution for your business.